by Rev. Ted Pike

Joel Sprayregen is a former ACLU staff attorney and National Vice-Chair of the Anti-Defamation League. He was appalled at ADL’s recent 27-page online attack on the Christian/conservative right, “Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies.”

Writing in American Thinker Online, November 29, he says, “You can…understand the consternation, and not just mine, which greeted the ADL’s hyped “Report” declaring that ‘rage’ expressed against President Obama is un-American.” He says, “ADL’s perfervidly purple prose belies an abysmal ignorance of American political traditions.” Sprayregen documents this tradition on the authority of Jefferson, Holmes, etc., who not only tolerated but actually encouraged fervent, even heated dissent.

“ADL’s naked partisanship,” he says, is revealed by the fact that “In the time of anti-Bush rage, the ADL held its tongue.” But, he says, “You can’t fool all the people all the time…The failure of mainline media to scrutinize Obama and his mentors – which truly is unprecedented…incentivizes many who love this country to sound off…The ADL could not have chosen a more infelicitous moment to try to shield Obama from anger generated by his policies.”

Sprayregen says he was National Vice-Chair of “the then-respected Anti-Defamation League.” But in past years “…ADL stumbled so egregiously. As observed by many, including myself, who have left the organization, the ADL has declined into an autocracy where no opinion counts other than that of its long-time National Director, Abraham Foxman, whom the New York Times described as “a one-man Sanhedrin for life.” When Foxman hatches a crackpot idea like the “Rage Report,” no one can restrain him.”

He says, “Foxman is driven to justify his half-million-dollar-plus salary (matched in virtually no other Jewish organization)… To generate publicity for himself, he launches (and then summarily drops) foolish initiatives, such as his attack on Christian Evangelicals, Israel’s most consistent supporters… I found only one press column praising the ADL statement: that of Los Angeles Times writer Timothy Rutten… When I googled Rutten, I found that last year, he received an ADL First Amendment award.”

Sprayregen’s article adds to rapidly mounting testimony by yet another Jew (and ADL insider) informing the world that ADL is a loose cannon on the deck of liberalism. It could threaten Zionist interests also because ADL is the PR bulldog of Israel to the world. Jewish liberals view it, as Jewish Week confirmed last week, as “an active part of… the right-of-center pro-Israel establishment.” Yet Foxman, Sprayregen contends, counterproductively attacks the century-long arch supporters of Israel: evangelical Christians. This includes WorldNetDaily owner Joseph Farah who, not unlike ADL, provides a pipeline for Israeli policy directives to millions of evangelicals.

Where Is ADL Taking Us?

What does Sprayregen’s exposure of Foxman’s instability and persecutive inclinations mean to Christians/conservatives — indeed to all Americans?

It means many things because ADL has so profoundly altered American social attitudes, especially in regard to tolerance of homosexuality and support of pro-homosexual legislative initiatives. These, whether on the local, federal, or international level, will unfailingly be found to have been generated primarily by ADL and its parent organization, B’nai B’rith International.

ADL hate crimes laws have taken free speech from the citizens of Canada, England, Australia, etc.; and now America is shackled with a national hate law fully capable of doing the same. Recently signed by Pres. Obama, it was very largely conceived and brought into existence by the same Abe Foxman who wrote the recent “Rage Report” which portrays millions of Americans as “conspirators.”

Since 1984, with publication of my book Israel: Our Duty, Our Dilemma, I have been sounding the alarm against the ADL — warning of ADL’s anti-Christian, anti-freedom malevolence — just as Sprayregen and other Jewish ADL critics are now alleging. Yet virtual silence of any criticism of ADL has prevailed among frightened Christian and Jewish leaders until now. At last, Joseph Farah, Orthodox rabbi Nachum Shifren, Commentary magazine editor Jonathan Tobin, and Joel Sprayregen are finally breaking the national silence in terse and even biting rebuke. This is a historic moment. Never since its founding in 1913 have one evangelical and three Jewish leaders stood up in public criticism of ADL. Let’s make sure that ADL’s irresponsibility in issuing its “Rage Report” will result in a new era of responsibility for vigilance, scrutiny and criticism of ADL by all in positions of religious and political authority.

Danger from ADL Will Continue

What will happen to ADL if criticism and controversy over the “Rage Report” continues? Foxman could resign. ADL, under new leadership, could ostensibly learn some of the “tolerance” it has presumed to teach others for most of the past century.

Yet, ADL will remain an enormous threat to freedom. The statement by California Senator Jack Tenney in the 1971Congressional Record remains apropos: “The CIA and FBI are tinker toys compared to the ADL.”

ADL remains frighteningly powerful, eliciting recent effusive praise from guest speakers at ADL functions: Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security; Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; and Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General. In fact, legislative events of the past year have demonstrated beyond doubt that, at least concerning passage of ADL’s hate crimes laws, most Democrats in Congress as well as Attorney General Holder are securely in the palm of ADL’s hand.

ADL will continue to surveil Christian/conservative Americans along with fringe groups, providing under-the-table intelligence to the U.S. government unavailable through lawful means. Sometimes it will get caught, as Sprayregen says, “for illegally gathering evidence against unsuspecting Americans…stored in its massive files (twice in recent years the ADL has paid damages for illegal surveillance).” (For a complete education on ADL’s massive spy operation on 10,000 Americans, watch my gripping 82-minute video at www.truthtellers.org “Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians.”)

Evil tends to be immoderate. This time ADL has gone too far. In 2005, ADL’s National Executive Board member Philadelphia district attorney Lynne Abraham also went too far. Erupting in rage two days after Christian conservatives defeated ADL’s hate bill in Congress, she took revenge on the religious right by arresting 11 Christians. She charged them with seven crimes, threatening 47 years in prison and $90,000 in fines each. Included was the “hate crime” of witnessing to homosexuals at a gay pride rally. But ADL paid a big price then, as I hope they will pay in the days and weeks ahead. As a result of Abraham’s rash persecution, ADL provided a red hot issue which propelled me onto national talk radio. Since then, thanks to ADL, I have given roughly 700 interviews, with 125 hosts, almost entirely in warning against ADL and its hate laws.

Once, in an interview by author and radio talk show host Michael Collins Piper, he related how on a street corner in Washington, D.C. he saw someone who looked very familiar. Yes, it was Abe Foxman. Piper, who has exhaustively researched and written about ADL, started walking toward him, saying, “Hey, I know you — you’re Abe Foxman!” Foxman, doubtless recognizing Piper, turned and started walking briskly away and then fled.

This is the man who brings Christians/conservatives to silence and submission by threatening to label them anti-Semitic. He did this to Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, several weeks ago. Land had transgressed ADL’s ban on using any Nazi terminology to describe the pro-abortion provisions of the healthcare reform bill. Confronted by Foxman, Land was utterly intimidated, vowing, according to ADL, that from then on ADL can always count him “on board” their “tolerance” social agenda. Dr. Land should know this includes promotion of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and hate laws. (See ADL Welcomes Christian Leader’s Apology For Insensitive Remarks On Healthcare Debate)

Yet, as Piper’s encounter reveals, Foxman showed himself a coward, one who can’t face an eminent critic on the street corner or, as Sprayregen alleges, even criticism from his own staff. That is part of the reason he and ADL tirelessly promote hate laws which ban criticism of homosexuals, Muslims, and Jews. Above everything else, ADL abhors criticism of itself.

Foxman and the ADL need to be identified, exposed, and shamed in order to deflate their persona from the gargantuan proportions and reputation they have falsely attained over the past century. Foxman is like a phobia: If you run from it, it only attains credibility, becoming a giant in hot pursuit. But if you relax, turn around and mockingly defy it, it will dissipate. In the same way Foxman, the terror of the religious right, will shrink to nothing more than a mouse squeaking in the corner.

by Rev. Ted Pike

Two weeks ago the Anti-Defamation League released a 27-page report “Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies” in which it alleges that there exist a host of conspiracies against President Obama within various levels of the religious/conservative right.

A week ago I posted my article “ADL Blasts ‘Paranoid’ Right.” It went viral, stimulating postings or comments on dozens of websites and has dominated search engines all week. I was correct in predicting that most Christian/conservative “watchdog” groups, fearing ADL’s legendary powers of recrimination, would say nothing against this attack on them and their constituents. One outstanding exception: Although I did not know it at the time, Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily and criticized in ADL’s report, had, two days earlier, hit back at ADL in his own article. (See, The ADL targets WND) Farah says, “…the ADL is after me and my news organization.” Farah defiantly informs ADL that they are not going to succeed in making an anti-Semite out of him and millons of other Americans – just for protesting Obama. Way to go, Joe!

A number of the largest Jewish-owned internet media were also roused to voice opinion about ADL’s report. Here is an overview of what the Jewish press is saying.

Commentary Magazine , founded in 1945, is a Jewish-owned, respected bastion of neoconservatism from a largely Jewish perspective. Executive editor Jonathan Tobin agrees that ADL is way out of line in portraying anti-Obama protesters as involved in a conspiracy to take down Obama any way they can. (See, ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics)

But if the Anti-Defamation League has its way, the election of Barack Obama will herald a changing of the rules. Opponents of this president are apparently going to have to tread a lot more lightly or face all the opprobrium that this group can muster…

…“ Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies ”…claims that those who are disgruntled with the president have unleashed a “toxic atmosphere of rage in America” since Obama’s election…

But “Rage Grows in America” isn’t content with smoking out the nuts. Its goal is to link them to the broad spectrum of activists, writers, and thinkers who are less than enthralled with the age of Obama…

In one tidy package, the ADL links not only “mainstream” critics but also radio and television talkers like Glenn Beck and peaceful “tea party” protests against higher taxes with those who talk of armed resistance to the government and even those responsible for the 1994 Oklahoma City bombing. Seen in this light, those who merely cry that they “want their country back” from the Democrats while standing outside a town-hall meeting become the thin edge of the wedge of a new threat to democracy and, by extension, a threat to the Jews…

…what the ADL seems to forget is that the right of the people to feel “anger and resentment” against the government of the day — be it Republican or Democratic — is what we call democracy in this country… But by choosing to frame its report denouncing this brand of extremism in such a way as to associate all those who have opposed Obama’s policies in one way or another with the far Right, the ADL has stepped over a line that a nonpartisan group should never cross.

The Jewish Week’s article, “ADL report on ‘toxic atmosphere of rage’ ignites…well, rage,” by James Besser, says:

“Predictably, the right has gone ballistic over last week’s ADL report describing a “toxic atmosphere of rage in America” and tying that to the “birther” and “tea party” movements, this summer’s health reform town meeting disruptions and some conservative talk show hosts.

I googled “ADL” and “tea parties” and “rage” and came up with dozens of hits, many of them from renowned conspiracy theorists who see in the report proof that the ADL is interested only in stifling dissent, undermining Christianity and promoting a radical left agenda.

I found this comment – “The ADL is allegorically pinning a yellow star on ‘conspiracy theorists,’ Oath Keepers, Tea Party protesters, and anyone else who dares express dissent in response to the financial looting of the country or Barack Obama’s big government agenda” – repeated on at least 52 Web sites and blogs…”

Yet Besser disagrees with Commentary’s claim that ADL is singling out the right for suspicion. He claims ADL is “an equal opportunity nag,” which has also criticized liberals and is entitled to take on conservatives this time around.

He also says, “This week’s anti-ADL outbursts were amplified by Christian groups that insist hate crimes laws – which ADL has long and successfully advocated – are the leading edge of a conspiracy to foist homosexuality on the nation, undermine marriage and limit the free speech and religious rights of Christians.”

The Jewish-owned Los Angeles Times, featuring an opinion by Tim Rutten, not only agrees with the Jewish Week but says the ADL is right on target: Scrutiny and warning against the danger of the anti-Obama right – particularly talk show host Glenn Beck – should be heightened. In his opinion piece “Who’s Watching Glenn Beck?” he says:

“As a Jewish organization, the ADL’s first preoccupation naturally is anti-Semitism, but in the last few decades it has extended its scrutiny to the whole range of bigoted malevolence…For the first time in living memory, the ADL is sounding the alarm about a mainstream media personality: Fox News’ Glenn Beck, who also hosts a popular radio show.”

Rutten says, Beck “intends to use his TV and radio shows to promote a mass movement that will involve voter registration drives, training in community organizing and a series of regional conventions that will produce a “100-year plan” for America to be read from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a mass rally Aug. 28.”

Rutten soon goes in for the kill, saying, “Beck is an offensively dangerous demagogue,” who reminds him of “anti-Semitic” Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930’s. He says Beck should be “unplugged” at FOX News now, before his “extremist political campaign” does real damage.

The Jerusalem Post earlier lent credibility to ADL’s report, saying, “The sections of the report that draw our concern…spotlight the activities of a minority on the Right who have crossed the line between criticism of President Barack Obama’s policies to denying the legitimacy of America’s political system itself.”

Who are these transgressors? The Post says, “…it is destabilizing conspiratorialists who trouble us. They say Obama is a closet Muslim, or assert that his Hawaii birth certificate is a forgery so he is constitutionally ineligible to be president.” This is a description of Joseph Farah, whom ADL identifies as chief promoter of the “birther” conspiracy theory. The Post concludes: “We worry, however that Foxman’s claim of ‘a toxic atmosphere of rage’ in America is not hyperbole, but a true assessment of the political system’s condition.”

ADL: Educator of U.S. Police about Hate Crimes

Is this debate merely about ADL’s opinion versus the conservative right’s? No. Under ADL’s Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, ADL appointed itself the federally approved teacher of everything having to do with “tolerance,” “prejudice,” and hate crimes education and enforcement to all federal and local law police agencies in America. ADL boasts of its total involvement with hate crimes mentoring of police and that it has the loyalty of more than 150 police chiefs who testify concerning the acute need of ADL’s federal hate crimes law. Every time ADL issues a warning on the level of magnitude of its recent report, it is sent to law enforcement ranging from the US Justice Department and FBI to every local precinct in America. This spring, Missouri State Police finally realized they were being manipulated into issuing a similar ADL/SPLC directive profiling possible Christian/conservatives as potential terrorist threats. They quickly and responsibly rejected such input.

The same must take place now. ADL’s latest declaration that the anti-Obama, conservative right is paranoid and conspiratorial has undoubtedly further prejudiced thousands of members of law enforcement against millions of well-meaning Americans. ADL should undo such damage. It should tell law enforcement to disregard its stereotyping, as conspirators, of many tea parties, town hall, and anti-Obama protesters.

This summer and fall, hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans, perhaps for the first time in their lives, took action, feeling pride as patriots during tea party and healthcare protests. Yet ADL says even though much behavior at townhall meetings was “ugly,” similar behavior at the massive Washington, DC rally in September was “uglier.”

ADL should do more than remove “Rage in America” from its website. ADL has offended the American people and the American way.

It should apologize to the nation.